Day 7 - | precious cargo |
Day 7
Mileage: 58800 (8 AM)
Location: Thermopolis, WY -> Denver, Colorado
We woke up this morning... rather, we slept through three sets of alarms this morning. Jerry kept on waking up to turn them off [I slept through them all too - jerry], and Ted, Lisa, and I slept like rocks. I think we were just plain beat, and swimming in the sulphur springs really made the sleep.
After packing up, we headed out to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, where we stopped to view the exhibits and got a tour of the dinosaur dig site out there. It was pretty neat being out on the dig site, and I now have a much better idea of how the process of paleontology works. The exhibits themselves were a bit underwhelming (the Museum of Natural History has spoiled me), and the tour was really so-so and filled with suspect science. The tour guide went as far as to claim that the Rockies were formed by a meteor collision. Go figure. Lisa pointed out that we're probably a bit overeducated at this point for these tours-- I know this sounds obnoxious, but we realized that we have 7.5 degrees between the four of us. Weird, isn't it? I don't feel like I deserve mine.
Heading out from the Dinosaur center, we trucked it out to Yellowstone Drug Store in Shoshoni. The drug store was exactly how I imagined middle town America to be like. Shoshoni is a tiny, tiny town, and the Drugstore looks as if it came from the 60s. A long soda fountain bar shined in a corner, behind which burgers are flipped and shakes are swirled. Kitschy merchandise is all over, scattered between antiques and random general-store goods. The entire place felt like a cross between a Chinatown shop and an antique dealer.
We then headed for the long drive towards Denver. A short stop to take a picture with the world's largest Jackalope in Douglas, Wyoming. The jackalope is part of an American mythology that I never heard of-- a jackrabbit crossed with an antelope. Go figure. [Ted: The jackalope stars in "Boundin'", an animated short by Pixar]
And a short stop in Cheyenne, which really isn't worth mentioning. Sorry Wyoming.
Anyway, I'm pretty tired and need to get some sleep. Tomorrow we're dropping off very precious cargo, as Jerry is flying out of Denver and back to Stanford again. I know we'll see him again in the future, but right now, the mile-high rains of Denver mirrors my anticipations for tomorrow.
Ted adds:
Dinner tonight was at Rock Bottom Brewery, where, as usual, we ate too much. Good and rich food. We've all been noticing it in the past few days: the Americana Diet is not good for health. We've had giant hamburgers, heaps of french fries, ribs, pork chops... sort of explains why there are t-shirts for sale with slogans like "Fat people are harder to kidnap." Hopefully in the next few days my body will see some real vegetables again.
I like downtown Denver. It's similar to Santa Monica's Third St. Promenade, another pedestrian road. Denver's downtown is on 16th St, and runs about a mile from end to end. It reminded me of something I read about the renaissance of American downtowns, some sort of rebellion against one-stop big-box stores sprawled over miles of road. Unfortunately in Denver, almost only thing to do late at night is to go clubbing. We found ourselves at ESPNZone where we played air hockey and embarassed ourselves trying to play the basketball games.
In other news, I committed to sign a lease for housing in Cambridge tonight. I'll be living in East Cambridge, between Central and Kendall Squares. That starts September 1st; until then, I'll be staying with some FiCS alumni in the same area. Signing a lease makes this feel so concrete....
After sending Jerry off at the airport, we may stay in Denver one more night, then begin the drive toward Chicago. I'm not good with goodbyes.
I tend to try to stretch out goodbyes, and I think I've just about stretched the one coming tomorrow as much as I can. It takes some time for me to process things, so I think I'm going to need to wait till after I get back to CA to sort things out.
But right up front, this has been a wonderful week traveling with Ted, Howie, and Lisa. I'm really thankful to have spent these past few days with them (and hope that I was decent company).
Ted, Howie, Lisa, have a safe trip to Chicago and then on to your destinations. Already starting to miss you.
- jerry
Mileage: 58800 (8 AM)
Location: Thermopolis, WY -> Denver, Colorado
We woke up this morning... rather, we slept through three sets of alarms this morning. Jerry kept on waking up to turn them off [I slept through them all too - jerry], and Ted, Lisa, and I slept like rocks. I think we were just plain beat, and swimming in the sulphur springs really made the sleep.
After packing up, we headed out to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, where we stopped to view the exhibits and got a tour of the dinosaur dig site out there. It was pretty neat being out on the dig site, and I now have a much better idea of how the process of paleontology works. The exhibits themselves were a bit underwhelming (the Museum of Natural History has spoiled me), and the tour was really so-so and filled with suspect science. The tour guide went as far as to claim that the Rockies were formed by a meteor collision. Go figure. Lisa pointed out that we're probably a bit overeducated at this point for these tours-- I know this sounds obnoxious, but we realized that we have 7.5 degrees between the four of us. Weird, isn't it? I don't feel like I deserve mine.
Heading out from the Dinosaur center, we trucked it out to Yellowstone Drug Store in Shoshoni. The drug store was exactly how I imagined middle town America to be like. Shoshoni is a tiny, tiny town, and the Drugstore looks as if it came from the 60s. A long soda fountain bar shined in a corner, behind which burgers are flipped and shakes are swirled. Kitschy merchandise is all over, scattered between antiques and random general-store goods. The entire place felt like a cross between a Chinatown shop and an antique dealer.
We then headed for the long drive towards Denver. A short stop to take a picture with the world's largest Jackalope in Douglas, Wyoming. The jackalope is part of an American mythology that I never heard of-- a jackrabbit crossed with an antelope. Go figure. [Ted: The jackalope stars in "Boundin'", an animated short by Pixar]
And a short stop in Cheyenne, which really isn't worth mentioning. Sorry Wyoming.
Anyway, I'm pretty tired and need to get some sleep. Tomorrow we're dropping off very precious cargo, as Jerry is flying out of Denver and back to Stanford again. I know we'll see him again in the future, but right now, the mile-high rains of Denver mirrors my anticipations for tomorrow.
Ted adds:
Dinner tonight was at Rock Bottom Brewery, where, as usual, we ate too much. Good and rich food. We've all been noticing it in the past few days: the Americana Diet is not good for health. We've had giant hamburgers, heaps of french fries, ribs, pork chops... sort of explains why there are t-shirts for sale with slogans like "Fat people are harder to kidnap." Hopefully in the next few days my body will see some real vegetables again.
I like downtown Denver. It's similar to Santa Monica's Third St. Promenade, another pedestrian road. Denver's downtown is on 16th St, and runs about a mile from end to end. It reminded me of something I read about the renaissance of American downtowns, some sort of rebellion against one-stop big-box stores sprawled over miles of road. Unfortunately in Denver, almost only thing to do late at night is to go clubbing. We found ourselves at ESPNZone where we played air hockey and embarassed ourselves trying to play the basketball games.
In other news, I committed to sign a lease for housing in Cambridge tonight. I'll be living in East Cambridge, between Central and Kendall Squares. That starts September 1st; until then, I'll be staying with some FiCS alumni in the same area. Signing a lease makes this feel so concrete....
After sending Jerry off at the airport, we may stay in Denver one more night, then begin the drive toward Chicago. I'm not good with goodbyes.
I tend to try to stretch out goodbyes, and I think I've just about stretched the one coming tomorrow as much as I can. It takes some time for me to process things, so I think I'm going to need to wait till after I get back to CA to sort things out.
But right up front, this has been a wonderful week traveling with Ted, Howie, and Lisa. I'm really thankful to have spent these past few days with them (and hope that I was decent company).
Ted, Howie, Lisa, have a safe trip to Chicago and then on to your destinations. Already starting to miss you.
- jerry
posted by Howie C | 11:16 PM
2 Comments:
7.5 degrees. Wow. Nerds rule!
;)
I didn't realize that Jerry was leaving halfway through- darn. I want a shirt that says fat people are harder to kidnap! That's awesome!
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